In 2010 I was invited to take part in a performance of Fauréâs Requiem (Op. 48) in
which the orchestral parts were transcribed for organ by Pawel (2000). From the
outset it was apparent that the transcription would not do justice to the original
aesthetic spirit of the work. Organ transcriptions are however indispensable in
liturgical or concert performance contexts where a performance of the orchestral
score is not possible. The availability of recordings poses significant challenges to
such a transcription, as audiences, conductors and choristers are so familiar with the
work â the Requiem is Fauréâs most popular and well-known piece. Thus a
transcription that fails to take into account the original orchestral tonal palette will
result in an unsatisfactory performance. It was for this reason that I decided to
transcribe the work myself.
Before the process of conceptualising a transcription in a responsible manner, one
needs consider the task, and speculate upon the research question of whether Fauré
himself would have opposed the very idea of an organ transcription, and also
whether perhaps an organ duo or duet transcription would better serve the work.
In order to answer this question in an academically justifiable manner, it was
necessary to contextualise the existing transcription practise in Fauréâs Requiem in
more detail. After studying and interpreting relevant literature on the subject, specific
contexts pertaining to the work were construed in order to establish a framework and
foundation that could support the process of transcription.
To this end I focused upon aspects that were illuminated, in a concrete tangible
manner, by the context wherein the Requiem gained its origin. These points of
departure were, namely, historical, religious-philosophical, and also compositionalphilosophical
and compositional-pedagogical. This literature study was
supplemented by exhaustive study of the scores of editions of Fauréâs Requiem.
This framework subsequently served as the raison dâetre for the transcription as a
responsible re-interpretation of Fauréâs musical clothing of the words, as a vehicle of
expression of the religious text.
The literature study brought to light that transcriptions were an integral part of the
nineteenth-century musical milieu, and that Fauré and his contemporaries
contributed to this practice without reservation, approving only transcriptions faithful to the original work. It also appeared that Fauré, especially in his liturgical music,
readily accommodated diverse accompanimental possibilities, according to the
instrumental resources available to him on different occasions. Although Fauré wrote
no original organ compositions, he made extensive use of the instrument to
accompany voices in his liturgical works. It is on this evidence that I concluded that
the composer would not have objected to a responsible organ transcription of his
Requiem.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Fauré was singulary disindined towards
gargantuan orchestral and theatrical effects, and drawn rather to subtle nuances of
colour in order to illustrate the text. Also, his liturgical compositions are noticeably
shorn of secular influences. Fauréâs personal approach to the Requiem remains true
to this premise, and can therefore serve as a model of the Hellenic ideals so dear to
him. In order to retain the orchestral colouristic element of the original work and
achieve aesthetic satisfaction in a transcription, the medium of the organ duo or duet
is rendered essential, as two players are capable of handling more of these
colouristic elements.
In closing, it should be mentioned that the question of an organ transcription of
Fauréâs Requiem (Op. 48) has not been investigated in existing literature. As such a
transcription should find an indispensible role in performances of the work in smaller
liturgical or concert contexts, this may justify the subject worthy of an academic
study. Additionally, neither an organ duo nor an organ duet version exists, and so
this study addresses that hiatus, and further contributes to the international corpus of
the organ transcription repertoire. The scrupulous documentation of the process of
transcription, as well as the performance and recording of this version, affords the
study academic credibility, as well as verity of professional authenticity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07182013-090248 |
| Date | 18 July 2013 |
| Creators | Beukes, Jan Nel |
| Contributors | Prof NGJ Viljoen, Prof M Viljoen |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07182013-090248/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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